Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 11

by Hiro Ainana

  It was probably because his green-dyed hair had been cut and he didn’t have his usual makeup or manicure, but he gave the impression of a frail old man very different from the green-clad noble I knew.

  But his ashen face wasn’t moving in the slightest, making him appear dead.

  “Is he…alive?”

  I could tell through my AR display that he was, but I asked the viceroy’s wife anyway to try to find out what exactly was going on.

  “Yes, the viceroy is using his power to forcibly keep him alive.”

  “So that he can be questioned?”

  The viceroy’s wife shook her head quietly.

  “No. Once the temples of the six gods used their Holy Magic to cleanse him of the demon’s brainwashing, he confessed everything of his own accord.”

  I always thought he had a demon-like presence, but I’d never imagined that he was being brainwashed by one.

  I suppose even in the Muno Barony, my “Analyze” skill and AR display hadn’t been able to detect the demon consul’s Psychic Magic brainwashing.

  No wonder Psychic Magic carried such a strong stigma.

  As I later learned, it was the aged Head Priestess of Heraluon Temple who was able to sense his brainwashing, not any skill or Holy Magic.

  It was probably similar to how a skilled artisan could identify even the smallest error.

  I was a little curious as to why the number of gods seemed to be one short, but there was probably a good reason, so I didn’t press further.

  “Would you mind, my dear?”

  “Of course.”

  The viceroy nodded gravely at his wife.

  “O great spirit of Celivera City, I, the viceroy, implore you: Grant the diadem of power to your humble servant… Equipment Souchaku.”

  A ring-shaped light appeared around the viceroy’s forehead. When it vanished, he wore a circlet of blue-green crystal.

  He had probably summoned an item with which to use the City Core’s power.

  “I will now release the suspension. Sir Pendragon, please keep it brief.”

  He didn’t explain much, but I more or less understood.

  The City Core’s power was probably keeping Poputema alive in a state of suspended animation.

  “Suspended state, release.”

  The viceroy invoked one of the City Core’s key words.

  The white light around Poputema disappeared, and his lips and fingers began to twitch.

  “Nnnguuuuuohhhh!”

  A scream squeezed itself from Poputema’s mouth.

  “Darling, the anesthesia.”

  “O-of course. Remove Pain Mutsuu.”

  The viceroy used the City Core again, and Poputema’s screaming ceased. His breathing was still heavy, but he seemed to be able to speak.

  “Sir…Pendragon…”

  His eyes fell on me, and he called me over in a weak rasp.

  The viceroy’s wife nudged me forward, so I leaned my ear close to his mouth.

  “It seems…I’ve caused you…a great deal…of trouble.”

  His whispers were punctuated by frequent pauses.

  The viceroy’s spell was supposed to relieve him of pain, but he still seemed to be suffering.

  “I…owe you an apology and my thanks.”

  I used the menu to compensate for his halting speech in my mind as I listened.

  Now that he had been cleansed of the brainwashing, it was strange to hear him speak without saying “indeed” all the time.

  “Your kindness delayed the demons’ plans. That is a great achievement.”

  What had I done as Satou? Taking the homeless kids into the orphanage, I guess?

  I wasn’t really sure what plans he was talking about, though.

  “Without your good deeds, Celivera City would have fallen to ruin and been used to revive the demon lord before anyone realized what was happening.”

  Okay, I hadn’t even realized that was happening.

  From the sound of things, the demons really were trying to revive a demon lord in Celivera City.

  “Thanks to your delay and the work of that Hero’s follower, the demons panicked and resorted to hasty methods to try to revive the demon lord in Labyrinth City more quickly.”

  Did that mean there were still demons left?

  I searched the map, but there weren’t any demons in Labyrinth City or the kingdom land that encompassed it.

  I did notice a somewhat concerning presence in the mountains overlooking the city, but I could deal with that later.

  “No need to worry. Now that their forceful plan has failed, there will be no demon lord revived in Celivera for the foreseeable future.”

  Poputema spoke as if he’d read my mind.

  “The royal family and the Hero of the Saga Empire are bound to have taken notice of such conspicuous actions. The crafty demons will likely use that as a distraction and plot to revive the demon lord elsewhere. History makes that all too clear.”

  So Labyrinth City was safe, but there might be a demon lord revival somewhere else?

  It occurred to me again that the Tenion priestess in the old capital had told me that there were other areas where a demon lord revival was prophesized.

  I’d assumed the other six places were all just misses, but maybe not…

  “Therefore…”

  Poputema coughed violently.

  Blood trickled from the corner of his lips.

  “That will have to do.”

  The viceroy’s wife wiped the blood with a handkerchief.

  “What Poputema is trying to say is that your actions saved Celivera City. I shall award you the Celivera Holy Order Medal in the near future.”

  The viceroy spoke in the coughing Poputema’s place.

  I didn’t know what the medal was worth, but I’d admit it did make me happy to have my actions acknowledged.

  “One more thing.”

  Poputema’s voice wavered, as if he was speaking his last words.

  “I want you to tell the innocent people I hurt that I deeply apologize. I will entrust all my personal assets in Labyrinth City to you. Please distribute them to everyone who was hurt by my folly…”

  With that, Poputema’s eyes fluttered closed.

  “Darling!”

  “R-right. Suspended State Kashika.”

  The viceroy’s City Core stopped Poputema as he teetered on the verge of death.

  “Looks like we made it just in time.”

  “Good work, darling. Poputema still has one thing left to do.”

  The only possibilities I could think of for the near-death Poputema were either saying farewell to his next of kin or being presented to the kingdom as the mastermind behind the incident, but judging by the viceroy’s wife’s demeanor, I guessed that it was the former.

  Once we had determined the schedule for the medal-awarding ceremony, I left the viceroy’s castle.

  “Thanks to those reborn demons and the pink sphere, there should be plenty of miasma in Labyrinth City, indeed.”

  Standing on a mountain ridge looking down on Labyrinth City, a suspicious-looking man in green clothes murmured to himself.

  He spoke just like Poputema had as the green-clad noble, but physically the only resemblance he bore was his clothing, as he was otherwise a burly, macho man. A wyvern stood by his side with its wings folded in.

  I had all my stealth skills activated and had gotten close with successive uses of “Warp,” so the man and the wyvern didn’t seem to have noticed me yet.

  “As long as nothing gets in the way, soon the miasma will eat away at the people, and their negative feelings will permeate into the labyrinth, allowing the second coming of His Majesty, indeed.”

  He swept aside the sleeves of his dark-green cloak, spreading his arms dramatically like an actor on a stage.

  Sure enough, activating my “Miasma Vision” showed that Labyrinth City was producing a thick haze of miasma.

  Obviously, the demons’ plans hadn’t been completely thwarted
yet.

  I’d just have to cleanse all that miasma later.

  “Enjoy your brief springtime while it lasts, indeed. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho…”

  A shrill cackle ill-suited to the man’s stern features echoed across the mountains.

  According to my AR and map, his race displayed two overlapping words—Human and Avatar. Finding that suspicious, I’d simply come to investigate, but clearly he was related to the green greater demon who had been controlling Poputema.

  “Next I must help the pink one, indeed. So troublesome, but I must repay for the loan of the pink sphere, indeed.”

  He turned around, grimacing like a top-tier villain, then froze when he saw me sitting on top of a rock.

  Figuring I might as well, I tried giving him a friendly wave.

  “Wh-who are you, indeed?!”

  “…Nanashi the Hero.”

  When I responded coolly to the green-clad man, the wyvern finally noticed me and spread its wings in a threatening pose.

  “What exactly are you planning in Labyrinth City?”

  “Oh-ho-ho…”

  The man laughed loudly.

  “If you can catch me, perhaps I will tell you, indeed.”

  He pulled out two white spheres from his breast pocket, which produced magic circles from which two green lesser demons appeared.

  The man himself began to sink into the shadows beneath him.

  He was probably trying to use the lesser demons as a decoy while he escaped.

  I’m not letting that happen.

  I ignored the lesser demons, closed in on the green-clad man with “Warp,” and kicked him out of the shadows.

  “Guuuh! Wh-what did you do, indeed?!”

  The man groaned in pain.

  “How can an attack on my avatar reach my real body, indeed?!”

  I guess using a fusion of Sacredblade and Magic Armor on my foot when I kicked him must have worked.

  > Skill Acquired: “Holy Light Armor”

  Since I’d gained a new skill as a result, I put skill points into it and activated it right away.

  “E-enough, indeed. Stop that at once, indeeeeed!!”

  I decided to test out the new skill by kicking him again with blue light glowing around my foot, which he didn’t seem to like.

  The lesser demons and the wyvern had charged at me from behind to try to protect the man, so I destroyed them with Sacredblade on my fingertips.

  “To think you could damage me through my avatar… No wonder you were able to defeat the red, blue, and yellow senior demons, indeed. You are a completely freakish monster, indeed.”

  The man wobbled as he addressed me rather rudely.

  I reactivated my new “Holy Light Armor” and wrapped blue light around my fist.

  “I’ll destroy you too right now, then!”

  My punch left a streak of blue light in the air as it cracked into the green-clad man’s face.

  He spun and went flying across the ground, his head dragging through the dirt.

  “I-indeeeeed!”

  The man shrieked like a peculiar monster, turned into green smoke, and disappeared with a poof.

  I was kind of hoping he would dramatically explode, but I guess clichés can only go so far.

  I picked up the lesser demons’ cores from the ground and put the wyvern’s corpse away in Storage. The vanished green avatar didn’t seem to have dropped a core.

  I’d thought about putting a marker on the avatar and letting it go, but there was another one in the northernmost city of the royal territory. I put a marker on that one instead and destroyed this one to cheer myself up.

  Something else had caught my attention, so I headed up into the air with “Skyrunning.”

  “…Is that a magic circle?”

  Activating “Miasma Vision,” I looked down at Labyrinth City and found that the miasma appeared to be in the shape of a black magic circle.

  If my memory was correct, it lined up perfectly with the green-clad noble’s nighttime walking route.

  So he’d chosen that strange path to trace a magic circle, not just to mess with me.

  However, certain areas, like the location of my house and parts of downtown, were wiped clean, leaving the magic circle broken and nonfunctioning.

  I went back home with the Return spell and strolled around with my spirit light fully activated to erase the magic circle.

  Mia was the only person currently in Labyrinth City with the Spirit Vision gift, so it should be fine.

  “Caught you, Pochi!”

  “Awww, I got caught again, sir.”

  The power-limiting items I’d given Tama and Pochi seemed to be working well.

  Waving at the kids as they played in the empty lot, I continued my walk.

  “Mia, dear, your music is always lovely.”

  “It makes me feel stronger by the day!”

  “Mrrr. Flattery.”

  Mia was performing for a group of elderly folks by the reservoir.

  All of them were smiling and looked energetic.

  “See yooou?”

  “Thankee, dearie.”

  As I walked along by the ranch, I saw Tama hopping over a fence as an old lady bowed behind her.

  “Granny?”

  “Here, drink this. The little cat-eared girl gave us some herbs.”

  The elderly woman boiled the herbs and gave them to her sickly grandchild.

  I’d forgotten how good Tama was at identifying and gathering medicinal herbs.

  Walking down a street of farmhouses, I arrived close to the north gate near the private houses.

  “Bwa-ha-ha, what a haul!”

  “Good work, Arisa!”

  “Now we’ll get extra food for dinner!”

  “Larvae, praise me as well, I request.”

  “Ah-ha-ha, you’re so funny, Nana.”

  Arisa and Nana were walking along with large packages, followed by a gaggle of children.

  They’d been setting traps near where veria plants grew, catching lots of veria mice and sand moles.

  “It reminds me of hunting for stag beetles over summer vacations.”

  Arisa gave me a sunny smile.

  I guess her childhood had been pretty wild.

  After we parted ways, I walked through the noble quarters and the nature park that contained the Ivy Manor.

  “Allow me to accompany you, master.”

  Once I’d done a loop around the city and returned to the west gate, I met up with Liza.

  She’d been running along the outer walls of Labyrinth City as part of her training. Unsurprisingly, it was Arisa who had given her this idea.

  Arisa probably thought it would cheer Liza up, since she’d seemed depressed that she wasn’t more help in the battle against the silver intermediate demon.

  “Did you enjoy your run?”

  “…Yes, sir.”

  She didn’t seem to like it very much.

  “I guess we should start exploring the labyrinth again soon.”

  “Yes, master!”

  At my casual comment, Liza broke into a bold smile.

  Aside from harvesting hopping potatoes and walking beans, the group hadn’t been in the labyrinth much lately.

  “All right, maybe we can start tomorrow, then.”

  “I shall inform the others at once!”

  Liza dashed away, leaving me behind.

  With the pleasant background noise of children laughing and construction workers bustling around, I watched Liza vanish into the distance.

  Her tail was whipping rhythmically back and forth.

  “Is she that excited to get back into the labyrinth?”

  Smiling to myself, I looked up at the cloudless sky.

  Walking around the city with my spirit light fully active seemed to have worked well: The shroud of miasma had disappeared from above Labyrinth City.

  It was probably safe to assume that the demons’ plot to revive a demon lord in Labyrinth City was now thoroughly vanquished.

  A
s I strolled past the street stalls, some enthusiastic hawker kids called out to me brightly.

  “Mister! We’ve got spices that’d go great with any meat dish. Why don’t you take some home?”

  “Take a look at our Eluette rock salt, too.”

  “We just got a fresh batch of sesame sauce, a Vistall Duchy specialty!”

  If we were going back into the labyrinth, we’d certainly need to stock up on spices and ingredients for some meat and vegetable dishes.

  “Maybe I should do a little taste testing?”

  Murmuring to myself, I wandered over to take a look at the kids’ wares.

  The following day was shaping up to be perfect labyrinth-exploring weather.

  Afterword

  Hello, this is Hiro Ainana.

  Thank you for picking up the eleventh volume of Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody!

  Before we discuss this volume, let’s talk about the anime adaptation for a moment.

  As you may have already heard, I was able to visit SILVER LINK., the company producing the Death March anime. There, I got to meet Director Oonuma, the production committee, and many other staff members.

  I spoke primarily with the director and scenario writers, and we had some great discussions about the setting and important aspects of the series.

  I also got to join in a lot of meetings about the direction of the work, the backgrounds, the animation, and so on, which was surprising and very educational.

  Not long before I wrote this afterword, I even got to listen in on the tape auditions for Satou and Arisa.

  There were two surprising things about this.

  One: Around 140 voice actors applied for the roles.

  It was incredibly inspiring to hear so many talented voices acting out my characters.

  And two:

  Damn, voice actors have so many layers!

  It might be rude to say this to a pro, but every one of them was so amazingly good!

  From famous voice actors who you often hear in anime to fresh newcomers, every single one played Satou or Arisa beautifully.

  I’d never heard my work read aloud before, so I was so happy that I wound up flailing around like a fool.

  Honestly, I wanted to say, Let’s hire them all!